A Fish in Swinsto

[wellyjen]

I was going to post a comment that if you tried it you'd flounder, then I felt guilty (for starting the silliness) and I'd be continuing to derail an interesting topic complete with pictures of cave fish! So in a rare event of me not actually being daft , I thought best leave it to more serious comments

No more serious comments since, so...
SRT for fish will need a fin loop, seacowstails, several crabs and for abseiling, a whaletail.
Best practiced in the main shaft of Gaping Gill.

 

[ChrisB]

Fish don't need SRT, they just scale the walls.

 

[Pony]

Fish eggs can, but not always by a long shot, withstand digestion by birds and hence, and also with them being stuck to birds too, they've colonised some unlikely places. It'll have been washed in at some point. Have seen brown trout in Fell Beck.

 

[shotlighter]

Fish eggs can, but not always by a long shot, withstand digestion by birds and hence, and also with them being stuck to birds too, they've colonised some unlikely places. It'll have been washed in at some point. Have seen brown trout in Fell Beck.

Ah, the Single Roe Technique.

 

[Lankyman]

Ah, the Single Roe Technique.

When I started caving they used to use fish ladders

 

[Stevie]

We went through Simpson’s on Monday and found a big old frog at the bottom of slit pitch. Was alive but didn’t seem inclined to move very far. I was just able to wrap my hand around its body with its head and legs out either end. Carried it all the out of Valley Entrance and left it by the wall. Where it was probably eaten by a crow but hey ho. Fighting chance and all that. (… and an opportunity to hop to it with your best froggy puns)

 

[Lankyman]

We went through Simpson’s on Monday and found a big old frog at the bottom of slit pitch. Was alive but didn’t seem inclined to move very far. I was just able to wrap my hand around its body with its head and legs out either end. Carried it all the out of Valley Entrance and left it by the wall. Where it was probably eaten by a crow but hey ho. Fighting chance and all that. (… and an opportunity to hop to it with your best froggy puns)

Toadally awesome!

 

[Pitlamp]

I met you at the entrance when you released that frog; well done!

 

[Stevie]

Oh. Howdy Pitlamp. Sorry, I didn’t recognise you from your picture on here - you’re so much more handsome in the flesh . Did you catch up with the line laying guys?

 

[Pitlamp]

Ha ha - long time since I've been accused of that!

No, we missed each other but hooked up via messages later. Sounds like they did an excellent job in the Rowten sumps.

 

[Graham Proudlove]

On a trip through Swinsto today, I was “shocked” to see a fish swimming towards me on the “long crawl”. It was located about 30m in from the bottom of the first pitch.
It was in a shallow section of streamway with no pools.
The fish was about 100mm (4inch) and swam straight between my legs. I have named him “Bob”. View attachment 22082View attachment 22083

See the following link for as much as we know about trout in Yorkshire Dales caves:

Subterranean Fishes of the World - Graham Proudlove

cavefishes.org.uk

 

[Graham Proudlove]

See the following link for as much as we know about trout in Yorkshire Dales caves:

Subterranean Fishes of the World - Graham Proudlove

cavefishes.org.uk

The most interesting, and critical, thing about fishes in caves in the Yorkshire Dales is that it proves there are viable and long-term populations of fishes (Trout and Bullhead being the most likely) within these relatively high-level streams. What a Ph.D. study needs to do is not study the accidental trout in the caves (they have not gone there of their own choice, probabaly, there by accident of washing too far downstream), but see how they maintain populations at all in these streams. Since there is no possibility of these streams being re-populated from downstream (pitches in the caves) it is remakable that the populations have not become extinct centuries to millenia ago.

 

[Pitlamp]

As a matter of interest we had another giant white eel sighting in Austwick Beck Head a week ago. Not quite as big as the original monster we named "Eric(a)" so definitely a different specimen. It wasn't at all intimidated by meeting a diver; if we'd have had a camera available we could have got some good photos. They must be living in the cave for years and certainly don't look like they're short of food. But all divers were accounted for afterwards, so all's well that ends well!

 

[Danielle]

A few years ago I spotted a couple of fish, about 10cm long, in the stream going into Meregill Hole.

 

[mikem]

The mountain streams have fewer predators than lower sections (including fewer large trout), and big changes in levels presumably wash in more food from outside the water environment. Apparently Parr drop downstream to find new habitat, which presumably is how most isolated cave fish arrive:

Trout Lifecycle | Wild Trout Trust

The diagram below summarises the main trout lifecycle stages. For more detail on each stage, see the relevant section in the text and photographs below. Also check out this video of a talk by WTT Director Shaun Leonard where he describes the lifecycle of both resident brown trout and sea trout in…

www.wildtrout.org

 

[AlanClark]

A couple of years back I saw fish in Borrins Moor, and given where thay water goes it would be interesting to know how they got up there

 

[mikem]

See previous responses #7 and this page

 

[JAA]

A very inquisitive trout followed me from the end of a Langstrothdale sump back to the entrance area today. A much larger one was noted off the main line but it seemed more shark sized so was left alone

 

[JAA]

Go on @Pitlamp tell em about todays trout!

 

[Pitlamp]

OK then, I was invited to dive in this underwater Langstrothdale cave yesterday and I saw something I've never witnessed before. There was a large trout with a whole frog in its gob. It was obviously trying to swallow the frog and irrigate its gills at the same time. It seems we share these Dales sumps with some mean predators!